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oldguy73 Ah - that is the case in the USA.
In countries like the UK and many others, you can take out private medical insurance and/or pay singly for private treatment, if you can afford it; but otherwise the State system pays for national's medical care irrespective of occupation, unemployed or retired; or union membership.
There are some exceptions. Here, we pay towards opticians' and dentists' services even as National Health Service patients (the private fees are a lot higher) and until aged 60, part of the cost of prescription medicines. That fee goes to the NHS not the pharmacists, who have to sell "over-the-counter" medications, personal care products and cosmetics for their own income.
There are also certain exemptions, if on particular State benefits other than the State Pension: though retired I still need pay towards my dental treatment and spectacles.
That is the UK so the details will vary from country to country but the basic model is the whole system is funded from general taxation, not by the public hospitals and general-practioners invoicing their patients.
It was initiated in the late-1940s thanks to Aneurin Bevan, the Labour MP who saw the problems among his South Wales, industrial-area constituents on very low pay, studied the mutual-assurance plans that had evolved among them to help pay doctors' fees, and thus created the foundation for the National Health Service. Originally he intended it being fully "free at the point of use" but the government quickly realised that was not going to be sustainable so introduced the Prescription Fees to help with the cost of medicines.
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Most European countries have similar systems, and these are given reciprocal arrangements so visitors between them can receive treatment if they fall ill during their stay. The home welfare system re-pays the host's service.
